LLUIDAS VALE, St Catherine — Police have nabbed two alleged gunmen and are searching for a third following an intense gun battle at dawn Tuesday in this once peaceful town. The clash between cops and three gunmen took place a chain away from Shady Grove Police Station.

One of the alleged gunmen was shot and is in hospital under police guard.

The trio ended up in Lluidas Vale while allegedly trying to escape from the scene of a robbery carried out miles away in Ewarton district, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) said.

“About 7:50 am, the Shady Grove police were alerted that (the occupants of) a Nissan Tiida motor car had committed a robbery in the Ewarton police area, and that the car was heading towards the Lluidas Vale area. The police set up a roadblock [in Lluidas Vale] and the car was intercepted. However, when the occupants of the car saw the police, they tried to reverse in a bid to escape,” said a report from the police.

The suspected robbers’ escape bid failed, and so the three alighted the car and ran, the JCF said.

“They fired shots at the police and ran into the cane fields. Reinforcement was sought from the Point Hill and Linstead police. They went in search of the men and two of them were found. They are both in custody. However, one is in hospital under police guard. He got a gunshot injury,” the JCF further disclosed.

As news of the police’s success spread throughout the community known for sugar cane production, residents descended on the scene cordoned off by police tape. Many have been living increasingly in fear because their usually calm village has, so far this year, been rattled by two gun murders within four months.

In the first incident, a gunman, in broad daylight on April 7, shot and killed 28-year-old Oniel Newman outside a bar on Main Street in Lluidas Vale. A few months earlier, Newman had escaped during a gun attack at the same bar.

Then, on July 28, three gunmen attacked and killed Timothy “Charlie” Slue, the police said. That shooting unfolded on property owned by Worthy Park Sugar Estate at Tydixon in the Lluidas Vale police area. Slue was ambushed and shot while making an early morning trip to his farm.